Pumpkin Carving 2020

With Halloween on the horizon, we thought this weekend was the perfect time to carve our pumpkins and show a little holiday spirit. 

Sadly, due to the pandemic, the family-run pumpkin patch we have gone to for years and year and years isn't open this year. (Oh COVID, you just keep giving and giving, don't you??) Instead, we picked up pumpkins at a local grocery store and called it good.

In years past, we've had squirrels see our pumpkins as a buffet. My plan to thwart them was to keep the pumpkins in the basement until we were ready to carve them. A few days ago, Finn was nowhere to be seen... after a few moments of hunting, I found him gnawing on one of the pumpkins.
Animals = 1, Me = 0

Eric was the first to figure out his pumpkin design, and what a clever design he came up with! He went into our back yard, came back inside with some sticks, and went to work making arms for his pumpkin creations. How clever is he?!?! I didn't get any shots of him mid-creation, but do have a photo of his final results. 

Eric's pumpkin creation

I was a bit stumped on what I wanted my pumpkin's look and feel to be. I figured EVERYONE would have a mask-themed pumpkin, so didn't want to do that. I almost made a "VOTE" pumpkin, but then started to think that's what I did before the last election. Instead, I turned to my good ol' buddy Pinterest and swiped an idea from a post I saw there. When I saw the photo, I knew it was what I wanted to do ... carving and sewing all in one. How me! 

My creepy, yet crafty pumpkin

As the kids have grown up, they've taken on more and more ownership of their pumpkin designs and the actual creation. We still worry about potentially lost fingers, so closely watch them, but they are now old enough to do most/all of the work on their own. Spread you wings, little ones!! (PSA: Just keep the sharp knives pointed away from them. Please... for the love of all that's holy! We really don't want any pumpkin carving-related ER trips. Now or ever. But I digress....)

After much contemplation, Conor decided on a mad scientist design for his pumpkin. (Note: his pumpkin scientist's forehead "scar" is courtesy of Finn... please see the gnawing reference above.) Conor cleverly incorporated our Harry Potter glasses and mad scientist wig in his final design. 

Sketching out the design

Gooey!

Keep the sharp parts pointed away from you, bud!

The proud artist

The wig completes the creation

Annika's pumpkin was partially inspired by the Illuminati coupled with a cartoon character named Bob (I think). She incorporated a bit of herself in the design by including outlines of her hands right in the pumpkin. She worked incredibly hard on her pumpkin and completed the entire process on her own. Her creative process was "let's see how it goes", with very little preparatory sketching. She had a vision in her head and went for it. 

Scoop, scoop, scoop

The artist hard at work

Adding details

Ta da!!

Seeing everyone's final pumpkins was a lot of fun, but what really made the day special was hearing the kids reminisce about Halloweens gone by. The giggled about some of their earliest pumpkin-carving memories and the silly things they remember doing. There were countless "OH YEAH! I remember that" moments. 2020 has been a pretty odd year, to say the least, but having days like Sunday so full of family fun, tradition, and smiles made things feel much more normal.  

Pumpkin Carving 2019

Carving pumpkins when you live in a wet climate requires great calculations. No, not in terms of design, but in terms of timing. Carve too soon, and you wind up with a gloppy/moldy mess on your porch before Halloween rolls around. And no one finds that appealing, I have to guess.

We tucked our pumpkins away in the cool basement in hope it would prolong their pre-carving lives. For the most part, it worked. Conor's pumpkin proved to be a bit less cooperative than those belonging to the rest of us. When he attempted to pick up his pumpkin so he could bring it upstairs, the stem and some of the surrounding pumpkin flesh went with Conor ... the rest stayed on the floor. Whoops! (Conor and I made an emergency trip to QFC so he could pick out another one, so all was not lost!)

The kids, Eric, and I cleared off the kitchen table, covered it with plastic bags, and quickly got started on our gourd masterpieces. 

Ready, set, carve!

He's such a goof!

And so is his big sister!

Eric opted to scrap a design into his pumpkin instead of taking the more traditional carving approach

Scoopin' out the guts

Stringy gunk

Eric's spider web design 

This was the first year that the kids had complete control over their carving. We didn't hold their hands as they took blade to pumpkin. As a mom, it was a bit nerve wracking, I have to admit! I'm also proud to report that everyone completed the project with the same number of fingers they started with and no one required stitches. WIN!

Conor's final product

To make the experience THAT much better, we put some dry ice in the kids' pumpkins because, well, it's cool!! All of us giggled and clapped as the vapor poured out of the pumpkins. 

Happy Halloween, everyone! Be safe, have fun, and enjoy the sugar rush.

Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Prep

Since my last post, we have been eyeball deep in holidays... what feels like non-stop holidays!

HALLOWEEN
To gear up for Halloween, we made our annual pilgrimage to Fairbank Family Farm to pick out our pumpkins and say "howdy" to the various farm animals. Just like in years past, the piglets and goats were our favorite critters to see.... followed closely by the newly-hatched chicks and baby rabbits. We timed our trip to the pumpkin patch perfectly and escaped being rained on. (Insert a collective cheer and sign of relief here!)

A couple of days before Halloween, we pulled out our carving tools (aka knife and whatever pointy things we can get our hands on), covered the kitchen table with paper bags, and went to work creating our pumpkin masterpieces. Eric, once again, took on the role of artistic director (thank goodness that doesn't fall on my shoulders... it would be all sorts of "unfortunate pumpkins" if it did!) and coached the kids through the process of designing their pumpkins and making their ideas a reality. This was the first year Annika carved her pumpkin solo, which was a HUGE deal for her. One more "getting grown up" item checked off in her list! The kids were thrilled with their final results ... I was especially thrilled that everyone had all of their fingers at the end of the project and no one required a trip to the ER!

On Halloween, the kids were beyond excited to go to school because they got to wear their costumes instead of their uniforms. This was one of the rare mornings that they were up and ready to go WELL before our usual departure time. (I love Halloween because of this phenomenon, I have to admit!) Both kid had classroom parties to mark the day, so I offered to make cookies for them to take as our family's contribution. (I treated myself to the candy corn cookie cutter this year and am so happy I did!)

Annika dressed up as a vampire princess this year (complete with fancy new fangs!) and Conor was Spiderman. Both kids loved their costumes and I loved that they were super easy this year! We went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood with a couple of our neighbors and another CKS family (Annika's pal Maddy and her family). We expected to get drenched with the predicted rain, but lucked out and stayed dry the whole time. I can't even guess how much distance we covered, but it was enough that all of the kids had overflowing candy bags by the end of the night! The kids thought the houses that gave out the full-size candy bars were THE BEST and excitedly shouted "FULL SIZE HOUSE" after discovering a new one!

THANKSGIVING

We made our annual trek up to Whidbey for Thanksgiving, but this year, we had a few spins on the traditional visit. First of all, instead of going up Thursday morning, the kids and I went up Tuesday morning because they didn't have school which meant I needed to work remotely, so why not work remotely from the island?? (Duh!) Eric joined us Wednesday evening after work; he took a Lyft car from work and was able to walk on the ferry, avoiding the insane "rush hour the night before a holiday" ferry line. The second twist on our usual approach to Thanksgiving is we had my brother's dog Kirby with us. Kirby spent 10 days with us while the floors were refinished at my brother's house, so Kirby spent quite a bit of time on the island with us, too. Saying that he loved playing with my in-law's dogs would be the understatement of the year!

In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I worked during the days while the kids played outside (exhausting themselves and the dogs). We also worked on puzzles with Bestemor, went on a nice walk up to the meadow, and played lots of card/dice games. Conor's big accomplishment this year was helping Bestefar smoke the turkey ... and being the one who picked out the type of wood to use in the smoker (spoiler: he chose cherry).

In an effort to encourage the kids to make better use of the great room, I bought a 1/2-size ping pong table (thanks, pre-Black Friday sales) and got my hands on a free tabletop-size air hockey game. We also had some fun making the animal heads on the wall a bit less "I'm staring at you" for the kids (thanks, dollar store!). The games were a huge hit with everyone and did the trick of getting us to use more of the house. WIN!!

Troy and his family joined us on Thanksgiving after their week in Whistler, BC and spent the night on the island with us. I know they were happy to see us, but the Nelsons were over the moon to be reunited with Kirby for a night. That is one loved pup, let me tell you!

CHRISTMAS PREP

Each year as we drive away from Eric's parents house after Thanksgiving, we signal the start of the Christmas season by tuning the car radio to the local station that plays Christmas music 100% of the time during the holidays. Since then, we've put up the tree and gotten it decorated (complete with our annual Starbucks cup tree topper ... this year, with lights as an added bonus!), gone to Swanson's Nursery to see the reindeer (with our friend Valeria), gotten the cards mailed, visited Santa, and started on our holiday baking to-do list -- Annika and I made pizelles this past weekend (YUM)!

We still have a lot to do to get ready for Christmas, but we're getting there. The kids will start their break from school soon and they couldn't be more excited. Eric and I will take time off from work to celebrate the holidays, too... some staggered to accommodate the kids' school break days, but most at the same time. It'll be nice to be home for an extended time without the rush of regular life keeping us on our toes. Sleeping in? Yes please!!!!